In the wake of the leak of ballot papers to be used in the upcoming general elections, the Electoral Advisory Committee (EAC) says it has identified the point at which the ballots went missing in the Electoral Office of Jamaica (EOJ), and has suspended all the persons working in that section.

The EOJ also called in auditing firm Coopers and Lybrand to carry out an independent audit at its Duke Street, Kingston headquarters.

A news release from the EAC said the selected members of the committee were "satisfied that the 250 printed ballots handed over by the JLP to the police are genuine ballots which had been prepared for use in the elections." The Coopers and Lybrand audit was being done, the release said, "to determine the extent of the security breach."

The EAC and the EOJ are identifying additional security features to be placed on the ballots to be used in next Thursday's elections, the release said.

"The system in place provides for the checking and balancing at each stage of movement of the supplies on all materials used to produce ballots and on the actual ballots which are produced. This system is also being improved", the release said.

EOJ public education officer, Neville Graham was unable to say when the Coopers and Lybrand audit would be completed or when the results would be known. "An auditor takes as long as is necessary to get the job done," he said.

Several calls to Director of Elections Danville Walker to get more information on the matter were not returned yesterday.

JLP discovery

The EAC on Wednesday instructed that the audit be carried out after the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) turned over 250 ballot papers to the police through their attorneys-at-law. The JLP said the ballot papers were mistakenly delivered to the party's headquarters at Belmont Road in St. Andrew.

On Wednesday, JLP leader Edward Seaga said he had evidence that the security arrangements for the printing of ballots at the EOJ had been breached. He said he was aware of a plan by the governing People's National Party (PNP) to use illegally obtained ballots to win the election by fraud.

Mr. Seaga listed five seats which he said had been targetted by the PNP West Central St. Catherine, North East St. Catherine, North Central Clarendon, North Central St. Andrew and East Central St. James.

Mr. Graham said all of the 250 ballots were to be used in "one polling division of one constituency."

A party worker said the ballots found at JLP Headquarters were earmarked for North West Manchester. He declined to say what evidence the party had that certain seats were being targetted by the PNP. "That was the information received by the party leader - you have to speak to him directly", he said.

Efforts to speak to Mr. Seaga and the JLP's EAC representative, Mr. Ryan Peralto, were unsuccessful yesterday.